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#ArgentinaGP: Fourth row start after strange qualifying

Jonas Folger has learned a lot from his MotoGP™ qualifying session, although it did not meet expectations due to the mixed conditions.

After Friday’s hot and humid condition bad weather reached the northern part of Argentina last night. Several drizzle or slight rain showers from the late morning till the afternoon were responsible for mixed condition at the 4.8 kilometres long track in Termas de Río Hondo.

At first, Folger and his crew were able to continue their setup work on a dry track during Saturday morning’s warm up session. They did not miss this opportunity to make the Yamaha YZF-M1 better for the bumpy Sout American track. FP4 shortly after lunch time took place in full wet conditions before the track dried out over the course of both qualifying sessions, Q1 and Q2.

Weather forecasts sees dry conditions for the race on Sunday, which is set to get started at 9:00 pm CET.

“I’m not really disappointed, but frankly I expected something more. It was, however somewhat of a strange session. After we had adjusted the front suspension a bit too hard for FP4 on a completely wet track, we went softer for the qualifying. But over the course of this 15 minutes, the track has dried out, so we were a bit too soft with the front. On a drying track, of course, we break later which is why I always went on block with the fork in corner entry. So, it was very difficult to get the bike turning properly.

“Overall, however, it was not a bad qualifying. I think, to qualify for 11th position on the grid is definitely far off this world so, we are still in a good starting position from which we are able to fight for good points. But as said, there were definitely more on the table for us. On the other side, today’s qualifying was a completely new experience for me. It’s a pity, that it was weather wise affected but I’ve learned many things from this situation. Regarding yesterday’s issues because of the bumpy track, we found a good solution this morning. The bike now reacts less nervously and also it is more stable. We will go to tomorrow’s warm up session with these settings and check if it fits for the race pace. But so far I think that we are well prepared for all possible conditions.”